Casper College Selected as PAVE Partner Campus

Casper College is one of 30 schools in the nation, and the only one in the state of Wyoming, to be selected as a new Peer Advisors for Veteran Education (PAVE) partner campus. The new program will start this fall.

Lisa Goss, veteran and Hathaway scholarship coordinator, noted that the program was “designed to help ease the transition from the military to higher education and to improve the student veteran’s sense of connection onto our campus.” “We were fortunate and gratified that there was a high level of interest in PAVE, and the competition for the 30 new schools we could accept was intense. Casper College’s application was among the strongest, and we enjoyed hearing about the school and its veterans’ initiatives through the process,” said Brittany Risk, program manager for PAVE.

Goss, who will be attending a training session in August, said that she would be identifying current student veterans who can mentor three to five new student veterans on campus. Goss Hopes the program will “improve our vets’ academic performance, retention rate, graduation, and success in their next pursuit, whether to a job or the next level of education.”

Beyond just Casper College, Goss would like to partner with the college’s partner schools including the University of Wyoming at Casper, the University of North Dakota, Valley City State University, and others “to connect vets going higher in their education with CC vets, to hopefully keep (the CC vets) here longer.” She also hopes to partner with the Casper College Alumni Association and match alumni veterans who have successfully completed the same program with new CC veterans.

The PAVE program, which began with 12 partner campuses, now has a total of 42 partner campuses. Of that number Casper College is one of only five community colleges nationwide selected to participate in the program.

The Peer Advisors for Veteran Education Program is part of the University of Michigan M-SPAN network of programs providing services to service members, veterans, and military families.